Wiring harness question?

[mike]

Greetings from Ontario, Canada.

I'm installing an LS6 engine from an 02 Z06 in my project. I plan to use a custom wiring harness (Painless) and have been considering the use of the instrument cluster from a C6 instead of the C5.

Can you tell me if,

A) I will encounter any issues with any of the C6 gauges not functioning properly and if so, how to remedy?

B) will I need to make Painless aware of this to modify the harness to accommodate the C6 cluster if it will even work?

C) should I just stick with the C5 cluster?

Thanks for your input,
Mike

 

[Will Campbell]

Greetings from Ontario, Canada.

I'm installing an LS6 engine from an 02 Z06 in my project. I plan to use a custom wiring harness (Painless) and have been considering the use of the instrument cluster from a C6 instead of the C5.

Can you tell me if,

A) I will encounter any issues with any of the C6 gauges not functioning properly and if so, how to remedy?

B) will I need to make Painless aware of this to modify the harness to accommodate the C6 cluster if it will even work?

C) should I just stick with the C5 cluster?

Thanks for your input,
Mike

Most generic wiring harnesses, including the Painless line, don't really have much to do with the instrument aside from providing power.

The problems you will have with either of the Corvette instrument panels is that they assume a lot of infrastructure that your car may not have, starting with the BCM from the original car. It is a lot more work to make OEM instrument panels from any car work in a car other than the original application.

I know of one builder who recently bought an instrument panel from another car, and got all new aftermarket gauges installed into its shell. That was very expensive, but it offered a way to get the ease of installation of aftermarket gauges with the OEM look of a production cluster. It looked tremendous, and should be easy to install. It was very expensive, though.

Before you commit to using an OEM instrument panel from another car, you need to understand how each light, gauge and other accessory on the panel works. Often, that information is proprietary, and when it can be reverse-engineered, it is a long and hard slog (though there are some in both the GTM and SLC community who have done so, mostly using the rest of the Corvette harness, IIRC).

Ultimately, you need to ask yourself if you are qualified to attempt the work, or are willing to pay someone else who is. If the answer to both of those is "no", the aftermarket beckons.

 

[mike]

Thanks Will, I understand some of the challenges I will face with this build and the wiring is certainly one of them. This is why I felt that utilizing the ECU, engine and instrument cluster from the original donor C5 might make things somewhat easier?

If the Painless wiring harness can be modified to use the plugs that fit the cluster then my hope is the gauges should work, however, this is where my lack of technical and mechanical knowledge requires me to reach out to the forums for assistance.

I will seek professional help with this and in the meantime try and educate myself, so thanks again for your input.

Mike

 

[Will Campbell]

Using the OE cluster with a Painless-style harness is the hardest way to go.

The simplest would be to use the GMPP controller kit, a crate or used engine, and aftermarket gauges.

Ultimately, it will also likely be the cheapest way, when it's all done.

 

[Steve Wood (PANAVIA)]

+1 on the GM harness and controller - if not a number of firms can get you set up - I would check in on the ls1 forums for recommendation. On the gauges side - have you considered Speedhut ?